The Doctor and the Reaper
by Moodle McDoodle
Summary: Dastardos has always been a complete mystery, even when Doc Patch begins to get a closer look at him, he finds more questions than answers. But he also starts to see a different side to the infamous reaper...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Shovels

It was a bright, cheery day on Piñata Island, and Doc Patch quickly gulped down the last of his morning cup of tea before heading out to start yet another busy day of work healing sick piñata around the village!

That is, he sure hoped he'd be healing sick piñata, as long as HE didn't get to them first… Patch didn't want this to be another day of being too late to help!

Feeling determined, the doctor hopped into his little peddle car and rushed to the first garden on his list.

Today was already seeming unlucky for the local gardeners. Three had called him soon after he woke up saying they had awoken to find one of their piñata had gotten sick during the night.

Patch decided to head to the nearest garden first, it was only just down the path after all… but it was also right next to…

When he arrived at the edge of the garden he could already hear the distinct, eerie humming from Dastardos, who was floating out from behind the curtains of his hollow tree home across the garden, his glowing eyes even creepier than usual in the shadow of the tree.

Patch made eye contact with him for a brief moment, and began to sweat nervously a little. They both knew they were headed for the same thing; like always it was a race to see who would reach it first…

The first patient of the day was a sick buzzenge, and the owner, a young woman with short, ginger hair named Laura, was crouched over the poor bird piñata. She glanced between the doctor and the reaper with a worried expression as they both got closer.

Patch hurried over to them, peddling as fast as he could. The piñata was closer to Dastardos' side of the garden, but if Patch was just a little quicker then maybe-!

WHACK!

… Too late.

Dastardos shot Patch a lopsided grin as his long scarf snatched up the buzzenge's life sweet. "Easy come, easy go. Better luck next time Doc!"

Patch watched as Dastardos turned and floated away, laughing his signature evil laugh as he went.

He sighed, used to this outcome. Then turned to Laura, who, at the last minute while Patch wasn't paying much attention to anything but the piñata, had stood up and tried to swing her shovel at the reaper, who, of course, had just floated straight through her like a ghost.

… How did he do that anyway? Patch had always wondered…

"I'm s-sorry, I should have g-got here earlier… Are y-you okay?" He stuttered, watching Laura breathe heavily from both the shock of being ghosted through and the grief of losing an important piñata.

She gave him a weak smile. "I'm fine… it's bound to happen sometimes, especially living so close to him, I'm just lucky it hasn't happened more often…"

Patch could tell she was still shaken, but as much as he wanted to stay and make sure the gardener would really be okay, it was more important that he go to his next jobs and make sure it won't happen again.

"S-still, I'm sorry it has at all… I have t-two other jobs to get to, I'll s-see you l-later!" He said as he started to peddle his car away in the direction of the next garden.

Laura waves at him. "Good luck!" She called out, before turning to all the piñata that had come over to eat the leftover buzzenge sweets and sighing.

Patch's next job was at a family garden, and he arrived to find one of the daughters of the main gardener, a girl called Moodle, sat waiting by a sick kittyfloss.

Thankfully, there was no sign of Dastardos this time, and the doc was able to do his job quickly and leave for the next garden with a friendly wave at Moodle and no problems.

The third and for now final garden belonged to Bear A. Maracas, a boy with a garden full of fizzlybears. He had a bit of a tough guy demeanour, though Patch didn't really know him well enough to judge.

He began to feel that despite the bad start, things were going to go right today when he started to see Bear's garden and there was still no sign of-

Patch screamed when suddenly a figure with glowing eyes appeared in his path. Patch quickly swerved his car to avoid a crash, but ended up crashing right into a tree instead.

Dastardos cackled, twirling his piñata bat.

"You really are too easy," he said before turning transparent and floating through a different tree as he made his way to the garden, "you realise if you had kept a cool head instead of being spooked by nothing you could have just driven straight through me, right?"

I d-didn't want... You p-p-planned that…" Patch huffed as he started reversing his car. He quickly realised that this distraction had given the reaper a chance to get closer to the garden than him, despite floating a lot slower than the doctor drove, and Patch started to panic, rushing to get going again more quickly.

As they raced to the garden Patch was easily able to spot the sick fizzlybear, along with Bear himself who seemed to be with his friend Eddie Lizard, who was handing Bear a shovel that the doc immediately recognised.

Eddie was a rich kid, one of the few people in the village that could afford to buy the only thing that could hurt Dastardos, the Dastardos Shovel… and now Bear has it.

If Dastardos was worried it didn't show, it never did… Sometimes Patch wondered if Dastardos was _ever_ afraid…

The reaper was still ahead of him despite his best efforts to catch up, but then Bear charged at Dastardos with the shovel right when it looked like he was going to reach the fizzlybear first, and the doctor knew Dastardos' lead wouldn't last long now...

Patch looked away before before Bear reached him, and winced when he heard the sound of the hit landing. He focused instead on just reaching and curing his patient.

He heard another WHACK as he reached the piñata and pulled out his bottle, trying hard to ignore the fight going on behind him… He knew Dastardos needed to be stopped but sometimes the violence was a bit much for him.

A spoonful of medicine later and the fizzlybear immediately peeked up, vibrant colour returning to its paper. Patch smiled wide, happy to have helped another piñata. He turned to tell Bear the job was done and-

WHACK!

…Thud.

Patch froze, mouth hanging open in shock at the sight he saw as soon as he'd turned around, he hadn't ever realised it was even possible, but…

Bear had swung one last powerful swing of the shovel into Dastardos' head, and the reaper collapsed out of the air, completely unconscious, landing on the ground with a light thud.

Before Patch could react, Bear dropped the shovel and rushed over.

"Is Teddy okay?!" He frantically asked, and Patch was a little startled at how quickly the teen could switch from furiously wielding a shovel to worriedly fussing over his fizzlybear.

"Um, y-y-yes he is, b-but did you really have to-!"

"Thank you so much, Doc!" Bear cut Patch off, charging past him to pull his fizzlybear into a big hug. Patch smiled a little at the sight, who was he to judge how a gardener protects their beloved piñata?

Still… Patch frowned again as he turned to the reaper… Dastardos had always seemed so indestructible but now… he just looked small and hurt…

Eddie, who had been hiding rather unsuccessfully behind a fir tree during the commotion, cautiously approached and went to pick his special shovel off of the ground.

"Eugh!" Eddie shrieked and dropped the shovel as soon as he picked it up. "What is THAT?!"

He was pointing at some kind of black goop that was covering the blade of the shovel, and Patch crouched down curiously to get a closer look. The substance looked thick, sticky, it smelled sour and…

And there was a trail of it leading to the wound on Dastardos' head. Patch startled, and behind him Eddie gasped as he came to the same conclusion.

That was Dastardos' blood.

The doctor's mind raced. How? Why? Had he seen this before and just not realised? Usually he's so focused on doing his job…

Eddie scampered back over to Bear, wanting nothing to do with the horrifying sour blood, but Patch just moved closer, both fascinated and incredibly concerned. As he looked over the wound he couldn't help kicking himself for never wondering just how injured the reaper got after getting in these shovel fights, what kind of a doctor was he?!

He bit his lip and glanced over to Bear and Eddie, they didn't seem to be paying the doctor and reaper any mind, maybe he could…

Acting quickly, Patch got up and wheeled his car over to the unconscious Dastardos. He reached inside and pressed a button he didn't get to use very often, and a moment later a stretcher on wheels popped out of the back of the car.

Giving Eddie and Bear one last glance to make sure they still weren't paying attention, Patch very carefully began to lift Dastardos onto the stretcher, trying not to get distracted by how eerily light he was, even for someone of his size…

As soon as the reaper was secure, Patch hopped into the seat of his car and sped away in the direction of the clinic.

Even people like… whatever Dastardos is deserve to be healed…

… And what IS he anyway?

 **(A/N) Heyyy guess who's finally writing more than just a one-shot! Or at least, I'm gonna try to lol, I've been wanting to write a fic of these two becoming friends (and later getting together but that'll probably be a seperate fic) for so long and I've finally finished a chapter! I hope I can continue this, I've got a lot planned :0**

 **By the way, this story is not set in the same timeline as my Christmas fic, it miiiggghhht be the same timeline as my hammock fic but it depends on how the rest of this one turns out, and for my Halloween fic it could go either way!**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this and that you're hoping for more! Because believe me, I am too**

 **(EDIT) Just made some little changes to this chapter! Nothing big, just a few typos and moments where the wording felt awkward. You probably won't notice the change but if you do I hope you like it! I also fixed one (1) typo in chapter 2, but I feel like I did better with the wording there so that's the only change**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two. Medicine**

Dastardos suddenly shot awake, taking a deep breath as if he hadn't breathed in a while, which honestly he probably hadn't.

His head hurt... Badly.

As his mind caught up with what his horrible eyes were seeing he realised that Doc Patch was there, staring jaw-dropped at him and holding his wrist, almost as if checking for a pulse.

The reaper scowled and yanked his hand back, immediately on the defensive. Why the hell was Patch here?! Did he get dragged back to the clinic?! Seeing his nemesis' face first thing after waking up was NOT what he wanted to happen today. Or ever!

"What are you doing?" He hissed venomously, and the already nervous doctor flinched back.

"I-I was helping you..." Patch defended, his panicked expression dropping into a concerned frown, "are you o-okay? When I checked your pulse-"

Dastardos cut him off. "I don't need help!"

The snap made Patch flinch again and Dastardos took that as an opportunity to try and float out of the one bed in Patchingo's tiny clinic, he was sick of this place already. But then a mittened hand pushed him back down.

"W-Wait! You can't leave y-yet, I haven't even treated your w-wound yet!" the doctor protested, getting even more irritating.

Dastardos just glared at him as he went transparent and tried getting up again, this time phasing straight through Patch's hand. The doctor gasped at the sensation and pulled his hand away. Dastardos didn't really know what it was like for other people when he did that, not that he cared.

As soon as he was upright though, a sharp pain shot through his already aching skull, and his vision clouded as he started to feel lightheaded. Fuck, he was really injured this time, huh?

He must have stumbled because Patch reached out to steady him. He tried to slap his hand away but this time the doctor wasn't deterred and managed to gently push him back down.

Dastardos was FURIOUS. First some annoying young gardener knocks him out with one of _those_ shovels, and then he gets stuck at his nemesis' stupid little clinic?! And no doubt this'll become the village's next big thing to gossip about too...

Patch had moved to get some bandages from a cupboard but Dastardos could tell the doctor was glancing at him every few seconds. The reaper huffed.

At least he'd shut up. He must have realised that Dastardos was going to argue with him no matter what. Which he was. Especially now that Patch was coming back, not just with bandages but also a damp cloth and what he assumed was some kind of disinfectant.

"Don't you dare!" he growled when Patch reached out, and he froze, but annoyingly didn't back off. Since when was this wimp so stubborn?

"B-But you're still bleeding..." Patch weakly pointed out, before cautiously reaching for his skull again, slowly this time, as if Dastardos were a feral piñata that could attack at any moment... Which wasn't inaccurate.

The reaper just glared at him as he considered his options, but Patch took his silence as an invitation instead of a warning and moved closer, reaching to start pulling his mess of hair away from the wound.

Dastardos reflexively grabbed his wrist, holding it in place with impossible strength, his grip so tight that Patch whimpered in pain.

"Don't. You. Dare." He growled again, more intensely than before.

"B-but-"

"It'll heal quickly on it's own anyway!" He added. He didn't really want to tell Patch anything about his accelerated healing but if it got him to leave him alone...

Patch paused, frowning as he thought about what he'd just said... Dastardos hoped he would actually listen this time, he preferred Patch when he was a pushover! Did he just not fear him as much after seeing him so helpless? Ugh, another reason to escape as soon as possible.

"W-well... I can still make you m-more comfortable-" Dastardos scoffed "-while you h-heal at least!" Patch said with a nervous smile.

"D-do you need anything? A blanket? An e-extra pillow? Food? Water?" Patch froze. "W-Water! I'll get you a glass of water." And before Dastardos could even process everything he'd said, Patch left the room.

"Finally..." Dastardos muttered, ignoring the dizziness as he forced himself to float out of the bed and out through the closest wall.

Getting back home in this state was annoying, and when he passed through the old garden he got some odd looks from that gardener Laura (which he pointedly ignored) and he couldn't tell if it was because of the blood or because he was floating weirdly... But whatever, despite what Doc Patch clearly thought, he got home just fine!

As soon as he pulled open the curtains in the entrance to his tree and floated inside, he was greeted by a loud, excited mess of green eyes and red paper fur.

Floated past the crowd of sour piñata trying to get his attention, he went straight to a set of shelves carved into the wall next to his fireplace, which had a big cauldron sat in it.

The sours calmed down a bit as he began rummaging through a shelf of bottled potions, recognising that he was busy.

He quickly found the potion he was looking for an pulled the cork out before drinking the whole thing at once. Immediately he felt significantly less dizzy. Heh, he'd like to see Patch's medicine do that!

His head still hurt though, and he could still feel his thick black blood oozing down his neck, but that problem was nothing some time and some rest couldn't fix.

Turning around, Dastardos saw a few of the sours had laid down to rest in a pile on the floor.

He had a hammock hanging high above him, but the pile sounded like a much better idea right now.

As he practically collapsed on top of a snoring mallowolf, the rest of the sours decided that whatever he was doing they wanted to do to, and before he knew it he was completely surrounded by piñata settling down to rest with him.

Shifting so he was more comfortable, he pulled a sweet out of his pocket, the buzzenge life sweet he'd taken from his neighbour's garden earlier.

He unwrapped it, and had to push away a macaraccoon trying to sniff it over his shoulder before popping it in his mouth.

Dastardos didn't eat, not normally at least... He wasn't Pester, he didn't do what he did out of greed, but being whatever he was he needed a very particular diet...

He kept that a secret. He didn't want any gardeners knowing any more of his weaknesses... Or Patch for that matter.

He rolled over as he chewed the sweet, closing his eyes. As he fell asleep he absentmindedly noticed that he'd stopped bleeding, and that the pain in his head was getting smaller...


	3. an important update! (not bad news dw)

**Hey guys! Just wanted to let anyone following or checking this fic that this fic is being continued under a different title at this link!**

 **s/13515511/1/Sweet-and-Sour**

 **If the link doesn't work, you can easily find it under the new title Sweet and Sour on my profile. You can also follow it on AO3 if you prefer that site! This fic is _not_ being discontinued, I'm still working on it and still plan on keeping it updated, but I wanted a bit of a fresh start. **

**The first two chapters of this older version of the fic HAVE been updated and I've released Chapter 3 as well! I just won't be continuing to update under _this_ title. Hopefully going forward I will be able to get chapters out faster and I'm so sorry for the wait, I know those of you reading have been waiting for this to update and I'm so appreciative and grateful for the follow, faves and reviews that I have received! Hope you enjoy the updates if you decide to check them out! :)**

 **\- Moodle**


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